This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for ordering blades in rotatable machines.
Gas turbines are used in different operating environments, such as, to provide propulsion for aircraft and/or to produce power in both land-based and sea-borne power systems. At least some known gas turbine engines include a core engine having, in serial flow arrangement, a fan assembly and a high pressure compressor that compress airflow entering the engine. A combustor ignites a fuel-air mixture that is then channeled through a turbine nozzle assembly towards high and low pressure turbines. The turbines each include a plurality of rotor blades that extract rotational energy from airflow exiting the combustor.
At least some known turbofan gas turbine engines include a fan assembly that includes a plurality of fan blades extending radially outwardly therefrom. During normal operation, gas turbine engines may experience high rotational speeds, and any imbalance of the rotor may induce vibrational stresses to the rotor and/or rotor bearings and/or support structures. Over time, continued operation with such stresses may lead to premature failure of the bearings, bearing support structure, and/or rotor components.
Moreover, at least some known commercial jet engine fans operate with a relative blade tip Mach number in the transonic regime and may be subject to an operating characteristic called multiple-pure-tone (MPT) noise, or buzzsaw noise. Such noise may occur if at least some blades are oriented differently relative to other blades extending around the circumference of the fan case. Moreover, such noise may occur if blade-to-blade geometry variations exist within the fan. As a result, variations may exist within the fan assembly in the amplitude (strength) and/or spacing of the shockwaves originating from those portions of the blades that have sonic or supersonic velocities. Specifically, at axial locations close to the fan blades, the noise due to the shock waves is generally at multiples of the fan shaft per revolution frequency, which is the frequency with which one point on the shaft passes any particular fixed point as it rotates.
Shock waves of different strengths may propagate at different speeds. Accordingly, as the shock waves travel away from the blades, the noise at a blade passing frequency degenerates into a broad spectrum of lower frequency tones as the shock waves merge with each other. Buzzsaw noise may be an issue with passenger annoyance and comfort, and may also adversely affect community noise levels.
To facilitate minimizing imbalance and multiple pure tone noise of the fan during operation, at least some known fan assemblies are assembled in a controlled manner. For example, one control that may be used in assembling fan rotors involves mapping each fan blade into specific slots in the fan base. Within other known fan assemblies, a moment weight of each fan blade is determined and is used to map each blade into specific fan base slots. However, because the geometry of adjacent blades may be different, during operation a rotor may still experience a shift in balance and/or pure tone noise that is not associated with the moment weight of each blade but due to different aerodynamic loading between blades.